Chapter 28: Betrayal

Lin Feng was talking to a female police officer in uniform, who was about his height.

A moment later, he clearly saw Qin Qing, raised his chin, and greeted her from a distance: “Qin Qing? What’s going on?”

Qin Qing: “Should I thank you, Captain Lin, for finally remembering my name?”

Lin Feng rubbed his nose and chuckled, “Don’t be so petty, it’s such a small thing, don’t take it to heart.”

The female officer beside him asked Lin Feng, “Do you know each other?”

“Yes, she’s helped the team a few times.” Then he added, “She often eats noodles at the noodle shop next to our station.”

Qin Qing rolled her eyes inwardly. What did he mean by adding that? Just because he treated her to noodles a few times, was that worth mentioning?

“Help?” The female officer crossed her arms, teasing, “Don’t tell me she’s another consultant you hired. Isn’t one Luo Chi enough?”

“No way! One Old Luo is enough to handle.” Lin Feng scratched his head and introduced Qin Qing, “This is my senior from the police academy, Chen Deyu, the captain of the criminal investigation team here.”

Then he introduced Qin Qing, using a more formal tone: “Qin Qing, an excellent and enthusiastic citizen.”

Qin Qing: “Hello, Captain Chen.”

“Hello, don’t listen to his nonsense. This kid was unreliable even in school, always full of hot air.”

Qin Qing played along: “I can tell.”

She could also tell that the two had a close relationship.

Lin Feng asked, “Are you here for something? If there’s anything I can help with, just say the word, and I’ll handle it perfectly for you.”

Qin Qing scoffed at him, “What about the bonus you promised? You haven’t given it to me yet, and now you’re writing bad checks.”

Lin Feng cleared his throat twice, clearly feeling guilty.

Qin Qing didn’t press the issue and gestured to Liang Jinguo behind her: “I’m not here for business, I came with my boss.”

Liang Jinguo spoke up at the right time: “I’m a friend of Ms. Liu Simin, and I’m here to help at her request. May I ask where she is?”

Chen Deyu looked at Liang Jinguo: “She’s in the special case conference room. The case is still under investigation. According to regulations, unrelated personnel are not allowed inside.”

Lin Feng immediately looked at Qin Qing, but he didn’t say anything.

“Okay, we won’t go in. I’ll ask her to come out.” Liang Jinguo nodded to Chen Deyu, then took out his phone to send a message.

Qin Qing then found a place to sit down.

Suddenly, an enraged man came out from inside, slamming the door loudly.

“Alright, you police officers, my son has been kidnapped and his life is hanging by a thread, and you’re not racing against time to solve the case, but you have the leisure to chat here? Is this how public servants should be? I know where your director’s office is, believe it or not, I’ll complain about you. So much time has passed, and you haven’t found a single useful clue.”

Chen Deyu looked displeased but said nothing. Lin Feng pointed directly at the man’s nose and cursed, “What are you yelling about? Do you think this is your home? Do you solve cases by who has the loudest voice?”

The man stiffened his neck: “Poor service attitude, I’m going to complain about you!”

“Go ahead and complain, I’m seconded here to help, I’m not under the jurisdiction of this bureau.” Lin Feng wasn’t going to humor him.

Chen Deyu called out, “Lin Feng, don’t go too far.” The latter turned his head away and said nothing more.

The man panted heavily, glaring at Lin Feng.

Another woman came out from inside, probably having heard the commotion. She apologized to the police, “My husband is just anxious, please don’t take him seriously, don’t mind him.” She then scolded the man, “If you really care about our son, then cause less trouble.”

Liang Jinguo called out, “Simin.”

“You’re here.” Liu Simin looked at Qin Qing, “Is this…?”

Liang Jinguo confirmed it.

Liu Simin eagerly grasped Qin Qing’s hand: “Mr. Liang and I have been friends for many years. He recommended you, and I trust you. No matter what, please save my son. Money is not an issue, or anything else I have. I just want my son to be healthy and safe, he’s still so young.”

Upon hearing this, Qin Qing knew that the woman in front of her was her client for this case.

Liu Simin’s husband had initially refused to even spare a glance at Liang Jinguo, clearly indicating a poor relationship with him. Now, hearing Liu Simin ask Qin Qing to save their son, he licked his lips and scoffed, “This is utterly ridiculous! Have you gone mad with worry? So many experienced police officers are at a loss, what amazing discovery could a young female officer make?”

It was clear that Qin Qing was once again mistaken for a police officer.

Liu Simin, with a tone of unbearable, angry calmness, warned her husband, “Can you shut up!”

The man’s gaze coldly locked onto Liang Jinguo, he snorted disdainfully, then shifted his gaze elsewhere.

Liang Jinguo ignored the man’s provocation.

Qin Qing found the man’s attitude strange.

Liu Simin being a friend of Liang Jinguo suggested her family’s business was also quite large, but her husband didn’t seem like someone who had struggled in the business world.

Facing a mother whose son was missing, Qin Qing tried her best to reassure her. She squeezed Liu Simin’s hand firmly and promised, “I will do my best.”

Chen Deyu was confused, wanting to stop outsiders from interfering with the case, but Lin Feng held her back. Lin Feng had noticed something amiss and called out to the group, “Don’t stand here, there are too many eyes and ears. Let’s talk inside.”

Lin Feng found an empty office, and Liu Simin’s husband reluctantly followed them in.

Qin Qing, with a clear mind, sat down in front of Liu Simin, blinked twice, and activated her System Panel.

Liu Simin’s basic data, apart from her Mood Value, was all normal.

Clicking on her Character Relationship Map, Qin Qing was surprised to find that Liu Simin’s husband was not in her relationship network. According to the System Panel’s logic, this meant that to her, her husband had no blood relation, no love, and no hate.

Their legal marital relationship was not recognized by the System Panel. And emotionally, their marriage was already dead in all but name, no wonder they didn’t appear close.

Clicking into her son Liu Xingchen’s System Panel, Qin Qing was startled.

She thought she had clicked the wrong one, re-clicked, and even checked with her notebook, but it was still the same.

She was glad she hadn’t boasted to Liu Simin before starting.

In Liu Xingchen’s System Panel, there was no map of his location! The System Panel displayed a prompt: “More than 50km from the main relationship person, map cannot be displayed.”

There was only an arrow indicating direction on the System Panel!

After searching for cats for so long, Qin Qing had never realized that the specific location information of people in the Relationship Map had a distance limit. This was something she hadn’t encountered in previous cases, and she wouldn’t have randomly gone fifty kilometers away to test this herself.

She felt like the System Panel had tricked her; there weren’t such detailed instructions when she purchased the Relationship Map.

It was also her own carelessness.

She secretly reminded herself to carefully test the details of any new function before enabling it in the future.

However, it wasn’t a complete loss.

Liu Xingchen’s System Panel’s rough log clearly stated that he was kidnapped by others at the instigation of his biological father, Hang Jie.

Qin Qing’s heart skipped a beat. She restrained herself from glancing at Hang Jie, who was watching her with amusement in the conference room—that is, Liu Simin’s strangely behaving husband.

She went back and checked Liu Simin’s recent logs, discovering that the couple was in the process of getting a divorce.

She then used her notebook to check Hang Jie, and it turned out that due to a prenuptial agreement, he couldn’t take any of Liu Simin’s assets in the divorce. Furthermore, he had another pregnant mistress egging him on, so he decided to stage his son’s kidnapping to extort money from Liu Simin.

What a scumbag!

Scumbags appear every year, but she’s encountered an unusually high number recently.

Zheng Yi’s husband was one, but this Hang Jie was even worse, kidnapping his own son. Even if the process was fake, for such a young child, he didn’t fear causing psychological trauma.

Qin Qing finished reading, maintaining a calm expression. Under Liu Simin’s hopeful gaze, she gently shook her head.

Liu Simin’s shoulders slumped, and the light in her eyes extinguished instantly. She buried her face in her hands and said in a muffled voice, “Still, thank you for coming.”

Hang Jie scoffed at Liang Jinguo. He had never once looked directly at Qin Qing; in his eyes, he only saw Liang Jinguo.

Qin Qing winked at Lin Feng and opened the door to leave.

Lin Feng followed closely, along with Liang Jinguo and Chen Deyu.

Away from the conference room, Qin Qing whispered, “Captain Lin, control Liu Simin’s husband. He’s the mastermind behind this kidnapping.”

“It was him!” Liang Jinguo heard that Qin Qing had indeed figured out useful information, and he breathed a sigh of relief, then became angry, feeling it was unfair to his friend, “And Simin was so good to him.”

Lin Feng: “Are you sure? How confident are you?”

“Certain, one hundred percent.”

“So it’s this old fox. Besides leaving a note at the scene, the kidnappers didn’t contact the parents a second time, which is why we were at a loss. Based on the clues we have so far, my senior and I also suspected it was an acquaintance, and we were checking the social circles of Liu Simin and her husband. If what you say is true, we really didn’t expect the suspect to be hiding right under our noses.” Lin Feng was so angry he laughed.

Chen Deyu frowned, full of doubt: “You’re saying the biological father kidnapped his son? What clues did you deduce that from? What evidence do you have? And what was his motive?”

Lin Feng rubbed his ear, looking troubled, “Uh, Senior, Qin Qing’s theoretical system isn’t the same as ours. We’ll probably have to work backward from the results to find the clues.”

“What do you mean?” Chen Deyu said, “Also, during work hours, call me Captain Chen.”

“Okay, Captain Chen.” Lin Feng gestured to Qin Qing, indicating for her to explain herself.

Now was not the time for a lengthy explanation, and Qin Qing, as Lin Feng said, didn’t have any reliable clues. She only stated Hang Jie’s motive: “He has a mistress, who is also an accomplice in this case. You’ll know the truth once you investigate.”

Qin Qing couldn’t reveal the mistress’s name, so she could only make the police work a bit harder.

Chen Deyu pressed, “How do you know?”

“That man has a ‘peach blossom evil’ on his face, which means improper relationships will bring him misfortune.” Qin Qing had recently brushed up on some numerology terms in her free time, but she wasn’t very proficient, though it was enough to get by.

Chen Deyu looked at her as if she were an idiot.

Lin Feng smoothed things over: “Senior, no, Captain Chen, whether it’s true or false, won’t we know once we interrogate him? The main culprit has already walked right into our trap.”

Lin Feng took Chen Deyu to interrogate Hang Jie and to apprehend his mistress.

Qin Qing didn’t leave either.

Knowing that Hang Jie had staged it himself, even if she hadn’t found the child’s exact location, the child was safe. Besides, after interrogating Hang Jie, the child should be brought back soon.

But without seeing the child return with her own eyes, she felt a little uneasy. Perhaps the impact of the 50km limit was too great for her, and she had been feeling a bit anxious.

You Ai came over with an insulated container: “Miss Qin, please eat something. Mr. Liang specifically instructed me to have a meal with you.”

Liang Jinguo wasn’t there, probably comforting Liu Simin.

The food was delicious. Qin Qing recognized it as dishes from “Yawei Jiangnan,” including her favorite soy sauce fried rice and rice soup with greens.

But somehow, she felt a bit distracted. Still, the food was innocent, so she tried her best to eat more.

Qin Qing was eating her post-meal yogurt and fruit salad when Lin Feng entered, looking serious. He glanced at You Ai, who stood up: “I’ll go see if Mr. Liang needs any help.”

Lin Feng delivered a few sentences, none of which were good news.

“Hang Jie is a coward; he confessed everything with just a scare. It was indeed him who kidnapped Liu Xingchen.”

“But he absolutely refuses to reveal the hiding place, probably because he genuinely doesn’t know, and he didn’t provide any details about the kidnappers who assisted him.”

“His mistress ran away, and he doesn’t even know it.”

“Our technical staff used Hang Jie’s personal communication device to impersonate him and send a message to the kidnappers. The kidnappers only replied with one sentence.”

Qin Qing stood up: “What?”

Lin Feng repeated the kidnapper’s words: “Cut the crap, pay up, or we’ll chop your son into pieces and return him to you.”

This didn’t sound like a request for labor fees at all; perhaps the situation had become more complicated. Qin Qing took out her notebook and wrote Hang Jie’s name. After a while, she exhaled and said to Lin Feng, “The kidnappers have betrayed him and are planning to double-cross him.”

Lin Feng: “Agreed, that’s what I thought too.”